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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lord Zardoz" data-source="post: 5115877" data-attributes="member: 704">I will not deny that using higher level monsters can result in exellent encounters that have a great mix of tension, risk, and player involvement.At this point, I am implying (with only anecdotal evedence at best) that using such monsters will generally increase the risk of running a grindy encounter, as you will often end up increasing the durability of the opponents.  I am also implying that Elites and Solos in particular are going to pose a huge risk of a grind when the Elite or Solo in question is several levels above your players current level.If we take that implication as a given, then I am not at all surprised that games run by DM's which especially enjoy building and running that type of an encounter will run into grind situations.  Being able to only damage one or two PC's in a round, you are going to take a very long time to create any real risk of character death, as the injured PC can just fall back and use 2nd Wind, or have a Leader use a Minor action to heal him.For the moment, I would say the following hold true as the most likely causes of grind in a 4th Edition game.Grind Definition:  Any fight where the tactical situation fails to change for more then 3 rounds with no obvious means for either side to change the tactical situation (so daily, encounter, or utility powers worth using, no action points).  Specifically, having many rounds where the effect of having every combatant miss in one round is no different between having every combatant hit with every attack (no one dies or is in danger of dying).Most likely grind causes:- monsters with too many HP - monsters with Too high AC- The Dm not having enough damage output to overcome the PC's access to healing surges- The above most likely occuring against small numbers of high level monsters who are also Elites or Solos.Does any of that sound wildly inaccurate?END COMMUNICATION</blockquote>

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